As part of ongoing efforts to enhance the capacity of community structures established to provide technical support in management of customary land, the Multi-Actor Platform on Land Governance and Responsible Agricultural Investment in Liberia (MAP Liberia Land Platform) with technical support from the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) has trained over twenty-seven Community Land Development Management Committee (CLDMC) members from six counties in Liberia.
In a November 10, 2024 release, MAP said the CLDMC members were drawn from Grand Cape Mount, Bomi, Sinoe, River Cess, Maryland and Grand Gedeh Counties.
Specifically, the training delved into the specific roles and responsibilities of the CLDMC; established a line of communications between the CLDMC and Community Acting Collectively (CAC), as well as acquire improved knowledge and skills in dealing with the meaningful participation of women in land governance and women’s land rights.
During the training, participants were drilled through the six steps of the Customary Land Formulation process.
Giving an overview of the training, the National Coordinator of the MAP Liberia Land Platform, Mr. John F. Kelvin, said that the Platform works to provide a forum for actors from Government, CSOs, private sector, academia and community representatives, to dialogue on policies and practices to improve land governance and responsible agricultural investment.
He said at the close of the exercise, the CLDMC members will have an understanding of the Land Rights Act which serves as a guiding tool for all types of lands in Liberia.
For his part, Morris Kormasu, Head of the Division of Customary Land Regulation at the Liberia Land Authority, said the Land Rights Act (LRA) was developed by the LLA to provide guidance on all land ownership, and for communities to obtain statutory deeds they must have followed the six procedures provided by the LLA.
The procedures including “Community Self-identification Procedure (CSI), presenting all relevant documents from the completed CSI process to the LLA for verification, validation and certification, submit to the LLA rules of gathering and by-laws procedures; and given an overview of the governance body of the CLDMC as well as overview of the boundary harmonization among others, are requirements that give community rights to own customary land.”
“This training is intended to provide an overview of the Land Rights Act; it will enable them to know the rules that apply in governing their customary land,” he said.
Kormasu said communities must always connect the LLA whenever issues of land dispute arise.
Also, the CLDMC Chairman in Bomi County, Winston Far, said the training has given them a broader knowledge on how to engage and educate communities in the formulizing their customary land.
“We the members of the CLDMC have been educated on the various types of land ownership. Most especially the customary land. We are also aware from this training that customary land is community land and no one family has ownership,” he added.
The MAP Liberia Land Platform is a nationally owned process initiated in 2018 by the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)
The platform brings together various actors and stakeholders including land, environment and agriculture related agencies of government, private sector institutions, civil society organizations, community based organizations, academia and research institutions as well as international development partners.
